[Dog Welder]

I'm in Austrailia right now..shooting the **** with my old roommate from college...and we gets to talking about this whole hubbub going on in the world. He says that countries ie Austrailia, UK..Euros...must buy their oil from US companies...not directly from OPEC nations...hence part of the high price of fuel in countries other than the US. Mind you this guy has his head 95% of the time in the right place. I ask for proof and he says that its common knowledge outside of the states...so ALL NON US Citizens...can you guys back that up?

 

[BurlyShirley]

Im not entirely sure how that works, but i could see the logic behind it. I mean, they must buy Nikes from shoe dealers, not directly from the sweatshops where they're manufactured.
I would assume that whoever buys the crude oil and processes it would then be open to any market where they could make money..ie...the rest of the world. BP has gas stations in the US.
Also, i would think that if any country's domestic oil comany wanted to purchase and process crude oil, it would most certainly be for sale...but it may be cheaper for them to simply buy it ready from US companies.
This doesnt seem to be yet another case of US imperialism, but rather Capitalism working out in our favor, if in fact, what your friend said is true.

 

[DRB]

Originally posted by Dog Welder
I'm in Austrailia right now..shooting the **** with my old roommate from college...and we gets to talking about this whole hubbub going on in the world. He says that countries ie Austrailia, UK..Euros...must buy their oil from US companies...not directly from OPEC nations...hence part of the high price of fuel in countries other than the US. Mind you this guy has his head 95% of the time in the right place. I ask for proof and he says that its common knowledge outside of the states...so ALL NON US Citizens...can you guys back that up?

No that is not correct.

5 steps to the basic process in the oil process: recovery, transportation, production, distribution and consumption.

Each step of the process brings about a variety of costs including taxes, tariffs, surcharges of infinite sources, and mark ups. The largest difference between US and European gas pricing is the application of tax which is signifcantly higher overseas. In some cases 70% of the cost of a unit of gasoline is going to taxes. In the US that number is closer 27%. Either way the oil companies still make about the same amount of profit in either situation.

 

[valve bouncer]

I wouldn't say it's common knowledge. As DRB says the taxes are higher in most countries than in America so petrol is more expensive. Compared to Europe and Japan petrol in Australia is "cheapish". Australia also produces a lot of its own oil as well as exporting coal and natural gas.

 

[D_D]

Originally posted by Dog Welder
I'm in Austrailia right now..shooting the **** with my old roommate from college...and we gets to talking about this whole hubbub going on in the world. He says that countries ie Austrailia, UK..Euros...must buy their oil from US companies...not directly from OPEC nations...hence part of the high price of fuel in countries other than the US. Mind you this guy has his head 95% of the time in the right place. I ask for proof and he says that its common knowledge outside of the states...so ALL NON US Citizens...can you guys back that up?

So what dothe UK, Euro, Austrailia etc. oil companies do? Produce oil and give it to the US to sell back to them?

I wouldn't be too surprises if the actual cost of petrol with out tax was cheaper in the UK than the US.

 

[DRB]

Originally posted by D_D
So what dothe UK, Euro, Austrailia etc. oil companies do? Produce oil and give it to the US to sell back to them?

I wouldn't be too surprises if the actual cost of petrol with out tax was cheaper in the UK than the US.

D_D is right. The difference removing taxes, other institutional surcharges, and the variance for gasoline additives, the UK's gas would be approximately 2 to 3% less than US gas. Europe's would be about 5 to 7% higher.

 

[LoboDelFuego]

I know that in Spain, the largest oil/gas company is Repsol, and they buy directly from the middle eastern nations, and even have some wells themselves.

One thing that is very interesting is that in Europe, diesel fuel is much cheaper, because it is less refined. Because gas is so expensive, many people opt for diesel cars, which are a bit more expensive but the engines are more durable. This is very bad for the environement (diesel fuel burns poorly, spitting more crap out into the air), so that may be why it is more expensive in the US>? This may be a clue to discovering the large price difference.

 

[shocktower]

Diesel is a buy product ,from the making of gas ,and the reasone the bastards charge so much is cause most of our stuff goes by truck /train which are diesel powered